Dale and Lisa's Travels: Happy Thanksgiving from Mt. Dora!

Twas the night fore Thanksgiving, when all through the bus,

not one turkey is thawing, cause here it's just us.

Well, that's the extent of my poetry skills. And to think it only took me three hours to come up with that!

The remainder of our time in Williston since our last blog entry was spent getting back on the exercise wagon for Dale, going through our mail which we hadn't had forwarded for three weeks, biking around the campground, grocery shopping, and scanning old photographs into the computer. Exciting stuff! We did end the time in Williston with an evening by the community campfire singing along with a very talented (older) guitarist. The criteria for the song requests was that they had to be at least 35 years old. It was a very nice ending to a relaxing week.

On Sunday, November 17th, we drove 80 or so miles from Williston to Woods N Water Trails RV Park. It can be a little stressful finding parks that are not on nice big main roads. Woods N Water Trails is not on a nice big main road, but we managed to find the park without any missteps. That was the good news. However, once inside the park things got a little tight. Upon pulling into the park on the entry road there was no obvious place to stop and check-in. The entry road was barely as long as our motorhome and Jeep combined before it T-boned at the clubhouse. Dale made a quick assessment as to the best way to proceed to get us out of the way so as to avoid blocking the entrance to the whole park. He picked a route with the thought in mind to go left and then right around the clubhouse and then stop along side it's left side where it appeared there wouldn't be too much traffic. We made the left turn and started to make the subsequent right. Well, this sequence of turns was not designed with a 40 foot motorhome in mind. As the situation got more questionable Dale sent Lisa out to spot for him. At this point we were starting to provide entertainment. We like to do that from time to time as life can be so boring for some of these snowbirds. Finally Lisa threw up a frantic STOP signal. Dale got out and confirmed there was no way we were going to negotiate that turn without adding some new cosmetic features to the Big Brown Bus. We would need to disconnect the Jeep in order to back out. About this time a fellow in a golf cart stopped to check on us. He informed us that he worked at the park and asked what site we morons were headed for. He didn't really say that, but Dale knew he was thinking it. Dale explained that we were to camp near the owner's house (whatever that meant) per conversations he had had with the manager of the park a week earlier. He then gave us the good news that we were not even in the right place. We should have turned a couple hundred yards prior to this entrance. Wonderful, we were providing entertainment and we weren't even supposed to be here. Well, Troy turned out to be a godsend. After disconnecting the Jeep, Lisa and Troy guided Dale back around the corner, and we safely parked the motorhome along the front side of the clubhouse far enough to the side so traffic could pass. The Jeep was parked elsewhere. Troy called and delayed an appointment so he could show us where we were supposed to go. The three of us piled on his two person golf cart and headed back out the entrance. We turned in at the entrance to Baywood Condominiums and eventually ended up going down a driveway. This driveway belonged to the campground owner who lived adjacent to the campground. He brought us to a location with two full hookup sites in what appeared to be the owner's side yard. It was actually very nice with a view to the lake over some lakeside vegetation and a lovely treed yard. It was like a custom private site just for us. We set up camp and then visited Dale's Michigan Tech college roommate, Dr. Don (and Kathy) Ilkka, and his family for dinner that same night of the 17th. On the 18th we drove up to The Villages where we spent February and March of 2012. We enjoyed our time there in 2012 and made some good friends so we want to spend some time there again this winter. So the main purpose for the trip on the 18th was to scope out potential campgrounds for January 2014. We ended up making a reservation at Recreation Plantation just outside The Villages in Lady Lake. Of course we had to end a perfect day in The Villages with a visit to the nightly party and dancing in the streets, this time at Spanish Springs. The only drawback to our site is that it is a grass site with the natural ant hill or two. On Thursday, the 21st, Dale did find out during a day of washing the motorhome with flip flops on that at least some of the ants are of the fire variety. Not bad, but just enough to cause some caution for the rest of our stay. We haven't mentioned it yet, but our intention is to park the BBB in Florida for about a month during the holidays and head back to Michigan to see family and take care of some doctor appointments. The plan had been to park the motorhome at Don's house during our absence. However, upon visiting his farm on the 17th it became clear we needed a plan B. Although Don has plenty of property, the driveway up to his house is bordered by some healthy evergreens which form half of an arboreal tunnel with well under the requisite 13 feet needed to allow the motorhome to pass unscathed. God provided plan B in the form of Kathy's mother. Kathy's parents, Doug and Marlene, used to own a substantial fifth wheel trailer. So Doug installed a limestone pad at the side of their garage complete with 50 amp electrical and water hookups to keep their trailer. Unfortunately, Doug was called to heaven earlier this year and the trailer has gone on to new owners. However, the pad is still there. On Friday, the 22nd, we took a ride over to evaluate the potential parking space. It was ideal. Large, unobstructed driveway. Plenty of room to maneuver the motorhome into place. And somewhat hidden well away from the road on their 6 acre plot. God works in amazing ways. Our parking spot reservations are in place. On Saturday, the 23rd, we took a ride with Don and Kathy up to Juniper Springs Recreation Area to see an excellent example of Florida's natural springs. Fern Hammock was very cool and somewhat reminiscent of the mud pots of Yellowstone. Water was 'boiling' out of the sand at a constant 72 degrees Fahrenheit at the rate of around 6 million gallons per day. Kathy packed a picnic lunch which we ate adjacent to the swimming area at Juniper Springs. Sunday we attended church at Faith Lutheran in Eustis. We met a nice couple from Kalamazoo, MI. We went out to lunch with them and invited them over to see the motorhome afterwards. On Tuesday, we drove down to Winter Haven to check out tire shades to protect the motorhome tires from the sun and to check out a couple campgrounds in Davenport for a month starting in mid-February. We ended up making reservations at Deer Creek Golf RV Resort. Looks very nice with friendly people all over. Thanksgiving Day will be spent in two places: our Woods N Water Trails clubhouse starting at 2:00 and then at Marlene's (Kathy's mother) starting at 4:00. Lisa is relishing the thought of not hosting for the first time in many years, but we will indeed miss spending the day with family for the first time ever.